DC Health’s Rape Prevention Education (DC RPE) Program, located within the Community Health Administration, offers free violence/sexual assault prevention education for schools and organizations to improve the health outcomes of District of Columbia youth.

Goals of RPE include:

• Reduce first time abuse
• Provide youth with accurate information that will empower students to identify signs of abuse before it occurs
• Empower youth to report abuse when it occurs
• Provide essentials skills for communication and conflict management
• Emphasizing healthy and respectful relationships
• Developing state-level sexual violence indicators for the District of Columbia

DC Health works with local community-based organizations and non-profits to disseminate this information to youth within the District of Columbia using evidence-based curricula.

The program target grades kindergarten through twelve, their families, and community members throughout the District of Columbia with an emphasis on Wards 5, 7 and 8. The RPE Program provides age-appropriate, evidence-informed and evidence-based sexual violence prevention curricula. The curricula promote awareness and provide information that can keep students safe. The education curricula include promoting safe and healthy relationship development, reducing adolescent dating violence, sexual assault, sexual violence and building communication skills. To request additional information and express your organization’s interest in participating in these evidence-based and evidence-informed activities, complete the information at this link.

DC RPE engages with community organizations, other District agencies and sexual violence prevention experts through the DC RPE Sexual Violence Prevention Community of Practice (SVPCoP). The SVPCoP was developed to assist the DC RPE Program to implement strategies that will address attitudes and beliefs that prevent sexual violence and distorted views of victimization. The SVPCoP integrates a public health approach and uses the best available evidence to support data-driven decision making for program and service development and implementation. To express interest in becoming a member of the SVPCoP, complete the information at this link.

For more information, please contact us via email at [email protected] or via phone at (202) 442-9386